Page 148 - South Mississippi Living - May, 2023

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story by Holly Harrison and Shannon Stage
photos courtesy of the
LaGardeur-Eastham family
FINE DINING & LIVING
For Michael and Stella LaGardeur-Eastham, fine dining and fine living happen at the same address. In 2003, the couple opened one of the area’s premier dining establishments in Historic Old Town Bay St. Louis. The Sycamore House offers a refined experience for its loyal following, but it is also home to the couple and their two teenage children. Their passion for family and food has built a success story as delightful as the cuisine they create.
Stella grew up in New Orleans and attended college in Washington State, earning a degree in psychology. During her studies, she worked for a catering company and after school found herself exploring her newly-found passion for preparing good food. She enrolled in the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, the “original CIA” as they call it.
A restaurant internship led her straight to Michael. “I was managing a restaurant,” he says. “I met Stella, and the rest is history.” Michael is from right outside New York City. He has a degree in art but after college supported himself, like so many do in the Big Apple, in the restaurant industry. After meeting Stella he too enrolled in the CIA.
Upon graduation the dating pair headed to San Francisco. “We were working for other people there and very quickly de- cided we wanted to own our own place.” They came back to South Louisiana and the Mississippi Coast to look for a place where they could do it all – be together, cook, and maybe one day raise a family.
In 2002, friends told the couple to look closely at Bay St. Louis. “They told us that it needed a fine dining experience.
From the beginning, we were looking for a place where we could open a restaurant and live over it.” They had one dream and they wanted one mortgage! “Living over your shop isn’t new,” says Michael. “Historically, business owners expected to put 80 plus hours into their work every week, so it made sense to live upstairs. European immigrants brought that enterprising attitude with them to this country.”
Stella and Michael found the perfect spot in the home they purchased in the second block of Main Street in the Bay. “This was known as the Mauffray Boarding House because Mrs. Mauffray took in visitors during the summer. But it had been restaurants too. First, The Landmark and then it became The Homestead.”
Creating the new restaurant became a family affair. Stella suggested they name their new restaurant after Michael’s grandmother’s Tudor home in England. Michael had wonderful memories of the home his grandmother called Sycamore House. It was constructed of timbers from Viking ships and many of those timbers are in British museums to- day. With a nod to that strong family heritage, The Sycamore House in the Bay was born.
Joined by Stella’s parents, the couple spent weeks and months envisioning and creating the ambiance so many have come to love. “We sat on the floor in the empty house in what is now the bar area with my parents. We laid the space out
in masking tape and then my dad built the bar for us.” The house was built circa 1860 and is on the National Register
of Historic Places. It comes with some great little quirks you might expect from a home with a colorful past. They say
148 | May 2023
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